Alexandra Baig, CFP®Apr 14 minHow Transitioning from Student to Worker Affects Your SSIThis time of year, I work with a lot of clients on their taxes. The economic results of both the pandemic and the relief packages meant...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Mar 125 minImpairment Related Work Expenses Can Reduce Countable Income for Social Security eligibilityWhen I lived in Shanghai back in the 1990s, I, like many other expatriates, received a housing allowance as well as a slightly higher...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Feb 45 minEmployer Subsidy Helps to Maintain SSI/SSDI EligibilityAs Americans, we are obsessed with dieting and counting food related indicators like calories, sugars, carbs, trans-fats or, for those...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Jan 215 minLearn How Earning Will Impact Your SSI and SSDI BenefitsOur family recently re-watched the first of three movies of the series: The Hobbit (directed by Peter Jackson, 2012) in order to...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Jan 125 minWhat Goes into an Individual Work Plan Through the Ticket to Work?With the shortage of activities due to COVID, my family and I have been playing more board games. Pictionary by Mattel has resurfaced...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Jan 84 minNew Year's Resolution: Use My Ticket to WorkIn a Berkeley Mews comic, the main character is making a list of New Year’s resolutions. He writes the list title and the first item: 1....
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Dec 18, 20204 minWorking Enough to Obtain Disability Benefits But Not Too Much to Lose Them.Most things in life require constant balance. We all know it is good to exercise, but if we take too long at the gym, we will eat into...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Dec 9, 20205 minThe Do's and Don't's of Being a Rep PayeeAs a financial planner, I regret to admit that my kids are pretty nonchalant about managing their allowance. But since they are too young...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Nov 11, 20204 minTransition is More Successful with Careful, Advance PlanningMy family members and I are chicken “newbs”. The chicks we bought, last February, and raised in our TV room are full-grown laying hens...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Oct 26, 20205 minShould Youth with Disabilities Apply for Social Security at Age 18?I went back to re-watch the first five seasons of “Schitt’s Creek”, when I realized, somewhat belatedly, that Season 6 had been released....
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Sep 27, 20203 minHow Murphy's Law Applies to Government BenefitsIn keeping with the general atmosphere of 2020, I was researching the origin of Murphy’s Law on a coffee break between clients. We are...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Sep 15, 20204 minHow about "abilities foremost" language?Last week, my husband and I had lunch with three of our friends, Anna, Franz and their adult daughter, Erika. Erika happens to have Down...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Aug 26, 20204 minHappy Birthday to You--Your Benefits Came Through!When you are a kid, you cannot wait to celebrate your next birthday. Besides the party and the cake and, of course, the presents, you...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Aug 20, 20204 minPeople with Disabilities are Not Perpetual ChildrenThree social media posts caught my eye, this past week. The first was an article about opposition to the decision of a café that employs...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Jul 20, 20205 minWhy Work Is Important on Multiple FrontsLast week, my sons’ summer program was not in session. While I enjoyed spending time with my boys—among other things like re-learning how...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Jul 3, 20205 minWhy You Want to Apply for Every Benefit for Which You May Be EligibleWith very little public areas of any kind open in Illinois, besides our many delightful forest preserves, my son and his summer program...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Jun 25, 20205 minStudy Your Vision to See What You Need to Actualize ItBecause my son’s summer program is so small, it is (thankfully) in regular session, despite the fact that Illinois is only partially...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Jun 15, 20205 minWhen Life Planning Seems a Tangle of Competing PrioritiesA couple of weeks ago, I took my son and a friend of his to a local forest preserve—that being one of the few things open during the...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®Jun 3, 20205 minSaying Something, Even When It's Not EnoughMy son was about to have his first in-person, life parkour practice in months. There would be only 10 kids. They would work out in the...
Alexandra Baig, CFP®May 28, 20206 minInnovative Options for Housing, Community and SupportMy son needs a lot of coaching to complete a project, assigned to him by someone else—say a teacher. But he has 150% focus and puts in...